Dream A Little Bigger, Darling
by MaddestFilmLitMaid3n
Summary: When Valerie accepted her job offer as assistant to billionaire Jason Reid,the most exciting thing she expected to learn was the man's coffee order.No way did she expect to land in the middle of the Team's second Inception job or fall for their Forger...
1. Eavesdropping

The hustle and bustle of the city's subway system never ended, only doubling at certain times of the day. Valerie Evans, unfortunately, was stuck in the subway during one of these doubling times.

The cold steel wall of the cramped tube pressed against the young woman's back while her knuckles turned a disturbing white from her grip on her first-ever briefcase. She closed her eyes as the subway train jostled her and everyone else around here this way and that, trying to bite back her fear of getting mugged, raped or shanked.

_Focus on starting your new job, _she told herself mentally, _as an assistant….to one of the biggest faces in corporate America! _Her fear was overtaken by her excitement for the moment. She smiled proudly, doing a small fist pump in the cramped area. She was still in shock that she managed to land such a high-end job just a year out of college, especially considering how she handled the interview. She could have sworn, and did for awhile, that she killed her chances after going on a mini rant on unfair gender treatment in the workplace. She still couldn't grasp what sparked the rant, but just thinking about it made her grimace with embarrassment. _I guess my references helped me out there._

The subway train lurched forward abruptly, tossing Valerie into a tiny, middle aged woman.

"Ouch, sorry!" Valerie rubbed her injured arm. The lady ignored her completely and walked out of the newly opened doors. "Well, then." Valerie rolled her eyes and exited the subway as well. _These city-folk are so amiable, _she thought to herself.

Getting out of the underground system to normal ground was surprisingly more challenging than entering it. When Valerie finally made it above ground, it was seven-forty five.

"Great," She complained aloud, standing at the edge of these busy sidewalk, "Late on my first day."

She waved down a taxi cab, mentally cursing herself for her tardiness.

"Reid Enterprises. As soon as possible please," She told the driver as she climbed into the old automobile.

Five minutes later for the price of twenty dollars and at the cost of the public's safety, Valerie was inside the Reid Enterprises building and making her way to the top floor. She wasn't able to admire the beauty of the modern building as she maneuvered her way throughout it. She did however notice that she seemed to be the only person in the building NOT working. Every well-dressed person she passed seemed to be engrossed in some form of work or another. Valerie attempted not to dwell on that fact.

She entered the top floor and found her desk stationed in front of a large and, thankfully, empty glass office. She dropped her briefcase on the average-sized desk and sat down in the comfortable chair, letting out a deep and relieved breath.

"I made it," She sighed, running a hand through her slightly disheveled caramel curls.

"Albeit you are a bit late," A deep voice replied from her left.

Valerie jumped from her seat whirled to see a young man with short blond hair and his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"I am so sorry, Mr. Reid, " Valerie jumped out of the seat, " I had taken the subway and it ended up to ta-"

He raised a hand, stopping her mid-sentence. "I'll let this slide once, Ms. Evans, but I do expect my employees to be prompt."

"I really am sorry," Valerie apologized again, her rapid heart beat calming, "I won't be late again, I promise."

Jason Reid gave his assistant a stern look then started towards his office, motioning for her to follow. "I have an important schedule to keep to today. You'll be with me throughout the day. For the most part, you will either be with me during the day, running errands for me or working at your desk. That all depends on that day's schedule, however," He went to his desk and handed Valerie a thin folder, "Here is a list of my contacts, big business partners and my schedule the next two days. After that, I expect you this role to be reversed. You instead giving me my schedule. You'll also need to arrange a majority of my meetings, book my flights, and keep my files organized. Pretty simple, right?"

The assistant nodded, her eyes flipped through the folder. _Wow, this guy's so organized already. Doesn't seem like he needs me._

The young billionaire pulled out a silver pocket watch. "My first appointment for today is at-"

"Is that a pocket watch?" Valerie blurted out before stopping to think. Her cheeks flushed as she bit her tongue too late.

"Yes…." He raised his eyebrows.

"Sorry, I have always loved them. It's too bad they went out of style. They are much superior to wristwatches," She stopped herself mid-speech.

"I agree," Mr. Reid responded, his green eyes glinting with amusement at his new assistant.

Valerie evaded his gaze.

"As I was saying," He continued, "my appointment is in thirty minutes so we should be going now. We have a long day and we don't want to be late, " He smirked, poking fun at her.

…

Reid ended up being right. The day was much too long, thanks to his schedule. The first appointment (at some high end suit shop) lead to a business brunch, which lead to two business lunches that was followed by a meeting with an advisory team for a new "headquarters" he was creating. By the time all of those activities were finished, Valerie's right hand was sore from all the notes she was required to take throughout the day (19 pages of notes to be exact). She flexed her hand, wincing, while she followed the quick steps of her boss. They were currently walking down a dark alley way (_Well, this isn't ominous at all) _near long rows of warehouses. Valerie took note of this and realized that she should be a bit worried

"Just one last meeting, Ms. Evans." Reid told her, glancing back. "And you don't need to take notes for this one."

"That's a relief," She sighed, caution still in her heart.

Reid stopped abruptly in front of one of the uniform warehouses. Valerie skidded to a stop. He turned to her, his green eyes blazing with some kind of excitement that she could see even in the early night.

"This shouldn't take too long, Ms. Evans. If you would be so kind as to wait out here for me," He didn't wait for an answer and opened the worn metallic door of the building, letting the light from inside spill out. Before she could see what or who was inside, Reid walked in with the door shutting behind him.

Well, it was supposed to shut behind him.

As the door was being closed, Valerie impulsively stuck her foot out to stop it. She bit her lip to stop from yelping at the quick pain that came as the door met her foot.

She quietly moved her foot from the door and pressed her body lightly against it, trying to hear something from inside. _Something fishy has to be going on in there. Maybe a drug deal or something like that. That would be so awesome! _She almost laughed from the adrenaline rush she got from the thought.

"Nice to meet you finally," That was Reid. "You are a difficult man to find, Cobb."

"Well, if you were me, would you want to be easily found?" A tired voice said.

Reid chuckled, "That does make some sense."

"Are you that famous billionaire who invented that social networking site? Jason Reid?" A different person, a young woman probably, asked.

"Ah, yes. That would be me. " A pause. "I am pressed for time so can we get down to business? I have my assistant waiting."

"Go on ahead," Another voice. A man this time.

"As you are well aware if you have read the paper, there is only one competing company with mine. Grayson Corporation. From my sources, I've learned that their technology department has discovered a new…..weapon, you could say," Another pause. "I don't trust the head of the company at all and I seriously worry this weapon is not going to be given over to….the right characters. So I need you, Cobb, and your team to-"

"Extract the information from the head's mind?" The tired voice, _Cobb?,_ asked.

Valerie leaned further on the door. _Extract? Like Steal? But that couldn't be right. I mean, he said extracting from the mind…._

"Well, I heard you performed Inception for Mr. Saito…"

"Inception? That nearly cost us all our lives!" A different voice spoke up.

Valerie's heart raced. _This sounds interesting._ She pressed harder on the door, trying to hear a bit better.

She leaned a bit too hard, unfortunately.

The door swung open at the extra pressure, and Valerie fell forward into the warehouse and into the middle of the her boss's meeting. She regained her balance quickly and met six surprised pairs of eyes.

"Would this be the assistant?" A British accent rang through the awkward silence.

**Sorry this had a long start but I wanted you all to understand Valerie and the situation. :D Plus I couldn't resist ending the chapter like this….**

**EDIT: I made some changes. I want these chapters to be as well written as possible.**


	2. Hello, Team Member

Valerie's head shot up at the silence-shattering sound of a question and looked for the speaker. She found him occupying one of the six taken steel chairs in the huge warehouse. He leaned back against the seat, its front legs floating in the air. She took note of his confident smirk and his grey eyes that showed too much amusement at her embarrassment. Valerie didn't realize how long she had been staring until his smirk grew into a full smile.

An annoyed sigh drew her attention from the grinning Brit. Valerie moved her gaze and immediately met the eyes of her employer, who was less than happy to say the least. "Ms. Evans, I distinctly remember asking you to wait outside for me."

The assistant felt her blood rush to her face. She let out a nervous laugh. "I, uh, do remember you saying something along those lines."

The businessman sighed and covered his eyes with his hand, "I'm sorry about this, Cobb. I should have left her in the car."

"You don't need to apologize to me. She's a liability only on your part." A man with noticeably sad eyes situated in the center seat replied.

Valerie instinctively felt her heart beat quicken. _Liability! This is bad. This is really bad. That's what they always say before shoving the guy into a meat grinder! _The assistant had a bad habit of applying movie scenarios to real life.

"You know what, " The frightened woman took a step back, "You don't need to worry about me. I barely heard any of what you were saying. I didn't understand anything I did hear either! You can just forget I was ever here!"

The young billionaire rolled his eyes, sensing the panic bubbling inside his assistant, "Calm down, Ms. Evans."

"I don't want to end up as someone's hamburger meat!" She said in all seriousness.

This statement filled the warehouse with confused silence.

"Meat?" A skeptical voice from a dark haired young man to her right questioned her.

"In the movies, every time the mob finds someone they think is a 'liability'" She made air-quotations as she said the word, "They decide to kill him, or in my case her, and they either throw him into a river, feed him to the dogs or shove him into a meat grinder. I don't want any of those things to happen, honestly. Being made into meat, though…." She shuddered. "That's….truly horrible. But, none of that needs to happen because I am not a liability." She felt like slapping her forehead. All she had done now was give them more ideas.

The silence that followed was shorter than before.

The grey-eyed man tilted his head, another half smile on his lips. "We aren't in the mob, darling."

"We don't have any intention of making you into hamburger meat either," the dark haired man told her matter-of-factly.

She gave them both a skeptical look.

Reid's eyes lighted up. "Actually, Ms. Evans, I believe you have just solved an important problem for me," His voice sounded both pleased and surprised.

"Really? That's wonderful. May I leave now?"

Reid held up a finger, signaling for her to wait. He turned to Cobb. "Before we were…interrupted, we had been discussing the possibility of a job."

"So we were." The man yawned.

"Essentially I need you and your team to extract the plans of the corporation's head and then plant the idea to destroy the technology's construction." He spoke lightly as if the task was the simplest thing in the world.

From what Valerie could gauge by the following reactions, it wasn't

"In the SAME person?" A young woman sitting next to the dark haired man asked, her voice raising in pitch at the end.

"You do realize now how difficult it is to do extraction, let alone Inception, by itself, don't you?" An olive toned man wearing spectacles near Cobb interjected.

"I understand the difficulty this job has but I will pay you more than enough for your success." Feeling he had appeased the team, he turned to their leader, "For you though, I have an alternative method of payment that may be more attractive to you. " He paused before saying slowly, "I happen to have a way to make those charges of yours disappear."

This last sentence grabbed the other man's attention, creating a reaction as . Cobb sat up suddenly up in his seat, a strange look coming over his face. At another moment's thought, however, he leaned back again. The emotion snatched from his face just as quick as it had come.

"How do I know you have that ability and, better yet, that you'll actually deliver?" His voice showed only a small interest that his body had just displayed.

"I have a very powerful friend in the justice system who owes me a favor and as for delivering my promise, " He shrugged his shoulders, "You'll just have to trust me. I assure you though that if the job is successful then I will be willing to repay you in any form you see fit"

Cobb stared at Reid, his countenance emotionless. No one in the warehouse said a word, waiting for his answer. The sound of Reid's pocket watch was the only thing breaking the silence for some time.

Cobb ran a hand through his hair, sighing. "I'll take the job." He sighed heavily in defeat.

Reid smiled, his perfect teeth gleaming, "Excellent."

"This is going to be one bloody difficult job." The grey-eyed man leaned back, putting his hands behind his head.

"Well that's the understatement of the year, " The dark haired man rolled his eyes.

"Thank you yet again for your entirely necessary opinion, Arthur," replied the English man, his voice laden with sarcasm.

Arthur opened his mouth to retort, "You know what-"

"One other thing I would like to add before this meeting is done," Reid interrupted the bickering.

Arthur shut his mouth, taking a moment to glare at his team member who just gave him a quick grin.

"As you are aware, I am a famous face in the work of business so I do not have the ability to assist you throughout the preparation for the job. Luckily, my lovely assistant has given me an answer to that problem."

Valerie, who had been attempting in vain to seem disinterested in the preceding conversation, raised her eyebrows upon hearing her boss.

Reid took her arm and brought her in front of the team, his assistant's blood again rushing to her face. "Ms. Evans will bee standing in for me. She'll keep me up to date on what is going on and assist you with anything you need help with."

Valerie opened her mouth to object but Cobb responded first. "That's fine with me as long as she has the necessary information."

"She will," Reid assured.

"Welcome to the team then, Ms. Evans."

Valerie was utterly confused. "Hold on for a second, have you forgotten that I have no idea what you are talking about?" She looked at Reid with disbelief.

"That's not really important right now," Her boss shrugged.

Valerie threw her hands into the air, exasperated. The excitement of learning about her boss's secret meeting died quickly.

"We'll explain everything fully tomorrow. For now, just understand that our work deals exclusively with the mind." Cobb said to her.

_That sounds entirely legal, _Valerie though sarcastically.

"I'm Dom Cobb by the way," He put a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes. The entire meeting had drained him.

"I'm Ariadne," The other female in the warehouse waved to get Valerie's attention. 'This is Arthur." She gestured to dark haired man, who nodded his head in acknowledgement at the assistant.

"I am Yusuf," The olive toned man raised a hand from the back.

"And I'm Valerie. It's a pleasure to meet you all, but I don't know if-" Valerie began.

"The name's Eames, in case you were wondering," The grey-eyed man spoke up, his eyes smiling at her.

_Eames. That's a really unique name. _Valerie thought to herself. _Is that his first name? I wonder what his last name is. Actually, it's probably his last name-_

"As you were saying, Ms. Evans." Reid brought her attention back to the current situation.

"Ummm…" For some reason, she couldn't remember her big objection to helping out. _The team seems pretty nice. They don't seem like the type to do anything immoral or anything__** really**__ destructive. _"Uh...never mind, I'll help." The assistant shook her head.

"Alright, in that case she will be back tomorrow." Reid told the team, smiling like the winner in a high stakes poker match, and pulled Valerie with him from the warehouse.

"Bye!" She waved to the team. She blushed immediately afterwards. _What are you five? Who waves to a team of thieves? _This thought made her pause as her employer lead her back to the cab waiting for them outside. She wasn't sure whether they were thieves. It sounded like they were planning on stealing something but that something was supposed to be in someone's mind. _That's impossible, though._

While walking alongside her boss, Valerie felt the confusion and some excitement stirring inside her. She also felt torn. What they were doing obviously wasn't legal. She knew that for sure. However, it wasn't murder or kidnapping from the sound of it. _This shouldn't be bad, right?_

**I really hope there aren't too many spelling errors this time. :/**

**So what do you guys think? A good chapter? Awesome ending? Amazing and lovely Eames? ;D**

**EDIT: I have been inspired after reading a certain fan fiction to make my fan fictions the best they can be. So I have been going through the chapters to make changes. **


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